Page 14 of Cowboy

“No worries, friend,” yelled the one man. “I just wanted to get your attention.”

Cowboy turned, still pushing Autumn behind him. The men were in suits, which by itself was strange, but what he saw behind them had him really worried.

“You better explain why the fuck you just fired at us,” called Cowboy.

“Simple. I want my pack.”

“I don’t know who the fuck you are or where your pack is,” yelled Cowboy.

“Maybe this will be incentive to remember,” said the man. One of the men behind him in a suit pulled Clarice Zellers toward the cliff’s edge. The old woman struggled against his hold, kicking out at him.

“No!” yelled Autumn. “No! Don’t hurt her, please. I don’t know anything about your pack. I don’t know who you are.”

“Autumn, get outta here!” yelled her grandmother. “Don’t listen to these fools!”

“Old woman, you’d better shut up,” growled the first man in a low voice that only she could hear. “Give me my pack!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” cried Autumn. “Benjamin, Cowboy, please. Please, she’s all I have.”

“I know, honey. But I don’t know what he’s talking about either.” He turned back to the ravine. “Look, we have no clue what you’re asking for. Please, just let the old woman go, and we can talk. You can search the plane or anything you want. Just let her go.”

“Let her go?” laughed the man. “Alright, we’ll let her go.”

He nodded at the man beside him, holding Clarice precariously over the ledge. Grinning, the man released his hold on her, and she plummeted over the side of the ravine to the waiting earth below.

“Nooo!” screamed Autumn.

Cowboy held her back, then the echo of a rifle behind them, whizzed past them hitting its target above them. The man who’d dropped Clarice found his own way to the bottom of the ravine as the other two dashed away.

Cowboy turned, scanning the land behind them. Mo and the others walked out of the trees. A huge man was carrying a rifle.

“Nice shot,” said Cowboy, still holding Autumn’s sobbing body.

“Not soon enough,” said Moose. “I’m awful sorry, ma’am.”

“P-please. P-please can we get my grandmother? She might be alive,” she begged. The others nodded, knowing Clarice wasn’t alive but willing to risk it to get her body back.

“We’ll find the other two soon enough. Let’s get the woman, and we’ll take her back to the ranch,” said Mo. “Maybe we can get an ID on the other man. Oh. Cowboy, this is Moose and Red. You already know Ethan.”

“Nice to see you, boys. This is Autumn Zellers, and that woman down there is her grandmother, Clarice.”

“We’re awful sorry we didn’t get here sooner, ma’am,” said Ethan. “We circled around the trail, coming from the same way you did.”

She could only nod, still numb from the entire event. But Cowboy could tell she was going to crash hard. Giving a head jerk to the others, they gathered the rope, and Red began to repel down the ravine. At the bottom, he stared at the elderly woman wanting to cry for her granddaughter. If she’d fallen from their side of the ravine, she might have survived. But the fall from the higher side was deadly.

Her body was lying in an awkward position, several bones broken, including her neck. Pulling the portable cradle from his pack, he unfolded it, carefully placed the woman on the litter, and secured her. He then tied the rope to the lift and watched as the two men above pulled her lifeless body to them.

Walking back further along the bottom of the ravine, he found the man that Moose shot and rolled his body over. He didn’t recognize the face, but then again, he was from Canada. If this was some famous criminal in America, he might not know it. He snapped several photos of his face, then pulled out his phone and used the digital fingerprint app to scan his prints. The information immediately went back to VG.

When he was back up the ravine, he saw Autumn lying next to her grandmother’s lifeless body, speaking softly to her.

“Shit,” he muttered.

“It’s breaking my fucking heart,” said Cowboy. “She raised her after her folks deserted her. I met the old woman in a truck stop, and she was trying to get help to find her granddaughter. Tough as shit old bird, brother. Reminded me of Mama Irene, except a whole lot more cussing.”

“We can keep her on the litter and pull her back to the ranch,” said Mo. Cowboy nodded, walking toward Autumn. He knelt beside her and pulled her up for a hug.

“I know, honey. I’m so damn sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.”

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